All termites are born inside of the eggs that are laid by the queen termite. A queen will end up laying thousands of eggs over a short period of time. Once these eggs hatch inside the termite colony, baby termites called larva come out of them. They are too young to fend for themselves, so the older worker termites end up providing the food they need to survive and grow bigger. As the larva termites get older, they will enter one of three caste types; soldier, worker or reproductive. The soldier termites are the ones that protect the colony and their queen from any outside introducers such as ants or other insects. The worker termites are the ones who swarm for food and bring it back to the queen as well as the larva termites. As for the reproductive termites, they are considered to be supplementary or secondary reproductive termites to the queen. The type of termite that a larva becomes is made naturally by the pheromones in which the queen termite gives off throughout the colony. These pheromones are responsible for transforming the larva into a particular kind of termite that will perform in one of the three castes.

In many cases, these reproductive termites will have wings and will be able to fly away toward a new area where they can start another colony. These reproductive termites will end up being the queen or king of an entirely new colony that they create together. All that needs to happen is for one king termite to pair up with one queen termite in a newly formed colony and the two can create a whole new flock of termites to populate their colony. As for the original queen, she can live for as long as 25 years in the same colony reproducing and creating more termites. If there are any outside intruders that end up killing the queen termite prematurely then one of the secondary reproductive termites will end up taking her place in that colony. The same goes for the king termite as well.

Termite colonies come in all shapes and sizes. Most of the bigger colonies form in areas that are not heavily populated by humans because they won’t end up getting destroyed by them. In most residential areas where people are present, a queen termite might live 12 to 24 months before they get discovered and exterminated.